


leave what you think you know at the door

by rosesandspades713



Series: TAZ Balance College AU [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, Swing Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22646503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesandspades713/pseuds/rosesandspades713
Summary: "He offers out a hand and she takes it, beaming at him like she always does. She must sense how he’s feeling because she squeezes his hand, almost imperceptibly. “Just relax, you’re going to be just fine.”Her touch puts him at ease, and when a new song starts up, he pulls her into a dance. And time melts away."Magnus needs to take another PE class before he can graduate. He ends up in a swing dancing class, where one of the teachers catches his eye.
Relationships: Julia Burnsides/Magnus Burnsides
Series: TAZ Balance College AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629094
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14





	leave what you think you know at the door

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! 
> 
> I wrote the first half of this like two years ago, and found it on my Google drive earlier today and decided to finish it! 
> 
> This takes place in the same universe as my other TAZ college AU, so if you like this, maybe check that one out as well!
> 
> Fic title comes from the song "My Kind of Man" by Vance Joy

“Remind me why you’re taking Lindy Hop again, Mags?” Taako asks as Magnus gets up to go to his first class. “No offense or anything, but it’s not really your style. I woulda pegged you as a hockey guy.”

Magnus shrugs. “If I did hockey, I’d wanna check. And they don’t let you do that in the PE class.”

“But still. Why a dance class?”

“I need to take a PE this term, and this was all that was left,” he says. “Plus Lup’s one of the teachers! You knew that, right?”

Taako shrugs. “Lulu’s been doing lindy since freshman year. She  _ likes  _ it. You, however, have two left feet.”

“Do not!” Magnus protests. 

Taako cocks an eyebrow. “Mid-Winter Ball. Freshman year.”

Magnus winces at the thought. He’d thought that pregaming was an excellent idea, and then he’d thought that asking his then-new friend Lucretia to dance was an even better one.

Lucretia had bruises on her feet for a week and Magnus was mortified. 

But hey. That was two years ago. Magnus is different now. 

“Not gonna be like that this time,” he says. “That’s a guarantee.”

Taako just nods dismissively. “Uh huh. Sure. Catch me laughing my ass off when Lulu sends me a video of you fucking up royally.”

“You’re gonna eat your words!” Magnus calls over his shoulder as he leaves their room.

“Keep telling yourself that!”

* * *

Magnus overestimated the time it would take for him to get to his PE class, which means he’s about five minutes early. He spots Lup almost immediately, talking to a girl about a foot shorter than her. After a second, Lup spots him, and waves him over. The girl she was talking to turns around, and smiles. 

It’s a beautiful smile. 

“Hey Mags, glad you could make it!” Lup says. “This is Julia, she’s the other teacher.”

Magnus looks at her, and she holds out a hand. “Nice to meet you, Magnus! Lup’s told me a lot about you.”

He laughs nervously and takes her hand, prepared to shake it. “Good stuff, I hope?”

Julia smiles again as she practically crushes his hand in the strongest handshake he’s ever partaken in. “Mostly.” She drops her hand, but Magnus’ is still hanging in the air, like it’s in shock from the force of the handshake. 

Lup just laughs and claps him on the back, shaking him out of his daze. “Come on, dude. Time for class.”

Julia gives a little wave to Magnus and follows Lup into the gym. Magnus furrows his brow before following them, surrounded by the rest of the class.

Lup signs everyone in on her computer, and then she and Julia organize everyone in a circle. Well, an oval. The room isn’t shaped the right way to make a circle. 

“Hey everybody, and welcome to beginning Lindy Hop!” Lup says. “I’m Lup, and she’s Julia. We’ll be your teachers for the term.”

“Lindy hop is a partner dance,” Julia says, “and those partners are called the lead and the follow. Lup and I can do both parts, but during this class we’ll just stick to one part. I’ll be leading and Lup will be following.”

Lup smiles. “Leads are the people who decide what’s gonna happen next, like if you’re gonna do a turn or swingout or just stay in the basics. Follows take cues from their leads, but they’re also the people who get to do all the fancy stuff!”

Julia cuts in. “Leads get to do fancy stuff sometimes too!”

“So we’re gonna ask you guys to pick lead or follow, and stick with that role all term,” Lup says. “Follows go to the left, leads to the right.”

Magnus heads to the leads’ side, and he looks back to the center of the room, where Julia and Lup are standing. Julia sees him looking, and she smiles again. It’s a very good smile.

Julia and Lup have to do some adjusting—a lot more people wanted to be follows than leads—but pretty soon there’s only one extra follow.

“Great!” Julia says, clapping her hands together. “Follows, find a lead, and let’s start dancing!”

* * *

At the end of the hour, Magnus is feeling more than a little out of place. 

He’s trying his best, but dancing just isn’t something that comes naturally to him. He can go through the motions well enough, and he hasn’t stepped on anyone’s foot yet (thank god) but he’s sloppy. And he doesn’t like it. 

“Great job, everybody! See you Wednesday!” Julia calls as people begin filing out of the room. Magnus makes to leave too, shoulders slumping in discouragement. 

Before he can get out the door, however, he hears someone call his name. He turns around, and sees it’s Julia. 

She pushes her dark bangs out of her eyes. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You look a little, uh, dejected. It’s only your first day, you know. You’ll get it.”

He laughs emptily. “I’ll try, anyway.”

She beams, and holds out her fist. “Hell yeah, you will. You’re going to be great at lindy. I promise you.”

Magnus can’t help but smile as he gives her a fist bump and turns to leave, giving Lup a sonically devastating high five as she passes by him.

* * *

As the classes go by, Magnus gets better. He’s feeling the rhythm, and he’s led several people in almost flawless turns. He also begins to see Julia more often. Turns out, he has history with her. The Wednesday after classes started, he walked into the room to see her, sitting in the middle of the second row. She waved at him, he waved back, and ended up sitting next to her. Now they sit next to each other every day in that class. 

She’s nice to him, really nice. At first he thought she was like this with everyone, but then he watched her absolutely eviscerate some guy in their class who thought it was funny to make fun of their professor’s accent when she was out of the room. That was  _ awesome.  _

Every time she sees him, she smiles at him. A bright, beaming smile that fills her eyes with light. He can’t help but smile back at her every time. And as the first few weeks of class pass, he feels that light reaching him as well. He knows this must mean  _ something _ , but he’s not sure what.

“Hey, Barry?” he says one night as the two of them are walking to the dining hall. “How did you know that you liked Lup?”

“Oh, uh, I guess I just kinda had a feeling?” Barry says, running his fingers through his hair. “I mean, it wasn’t obvious at first. I just thought I really liked hanging out with her. But one day, I realized that I just really liked her. Like, just seeing her was enough to brighten my day. And then I knew.”

“Huh.”

Barry looks over at him, eyebrow raised. “Why do you ask?”

“None of your damn business.”

“Uh huh, sure.”

Magnus furrows his brow. Does he...like Julia? He certainly looks forward to his history class, and lindy hop twice a week. And when she smiles at him in the hallway and his chest gets warm-

“Ah, fuck.”

Barry glances over at him. “Julia?”

“...Yeah.”

Barry just smiles. “She’s a great person, Lup absolutely adores her. I think you should give it a shot.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Hey, I didn’t think I’d get anywhere with Lup, but look at us now. The worst thing that happens is she says no.”

* * *

The next time Magnus sees Julia, it’s at the next lindy hop lesson. She smiles at him as always, and the twinge that he feels in his heart just confirms what he already knows. Class is different that day; instead of partnering up to learn new moves, Lup and Julia say they’ll be doing a sort of midterm evaluation. 

“Okay, it’s not actually a midterm,” Lup says. “You can’t fail it. We’re just doing an assessment to see where you guys are at. It’s hard for us to watch all of you individually, so this is how we make sure we’re teaching you guys well.”

“I’ll be partnering with the leads to see how they’re doing,” Julia says, “and Lup will be partnering with the follows. We really want this to be a low stress thing, it’s just to make sure everyone’s doing okay.”

Magnus draws in a sharp breath when he realizes what this means. Julia is going to be dancing with the leads, which means she’ll be dancing with...him. 

“If you’re not being tested, just do free dancing!” Lup says, as she sets up her Spotify playlist. “You’re all going to do great.”

Magnus watches Julia like a hawk as she grabs one of the other leads. He’s not going to be able to focus very well, knowing that he’s going to be dancing with her any minute now. 

And he’s right. He stumbles through his moves, he almost lets go of someone during a turn, he spends half a minute just doing the basic because his mind’s too occupied to think of anything else. He knows the people he’s dancing with are upset, and he feels horrible about it. But he can’t stop thinking about Julia, what it might feel like with her hand in his. And before he knows it, it’s time. 

“Hey Magnus! Ready to dance?”

_ No _ , he thinks. “Sure am!”

He offers out a hand and she takes it, beaming at him like she always does. She must sense how he’s feeling because she squeezes his hand, almost imperceptibly. “Just relax, you’re going to be just fine.”

Her touch puts him at ease, and when a new song starts up, he pulls her into a dance. And time melts away. 

Looking back on it, he knows he did well. He even remembers most of the moves he used. But in the moment, it’s just him and Julia. Her hands, her smile, her eyes. She’s grinning, and he knows he is, too. 

It’s over all too soon, and they’re both a little out of breath. He feels like it’s been twenty minutes and ten seconds at the same time. 

She beams up at him. “You’ve improved so much, Magnus!” she says. “I’m really proud of you.” She keeps talking after that, but his brain tunes it out, focusing on what she said before. That she’s proud of him. 

After class is over, he hangs back longer than he usually does. Lup and Julia tend to take a few minutes to leave after class is over, and by the time he sees them heading out of the gym, most of the class has already left. 

Lup spots him first, and she smirks in his direction. Magnus decides to blame Barry for that one. 

“Oh hey, Magnus,” she says, a suspicious tone in her voice. “You’re still here, huh?”

He laughs nervously, and looks down at the ground. Anywhere but at Julia. “Oh, well, y’know.”

“I don’t!” she says, extremely chipper. “Well, I’m heading out. See you guys.” And just like that she’s gone, and Magnus and Julia are alone. 

Magnus doesn’t get up from the bench he’s sitting on right away, and before he knows it, Julia’s sitting next to him. 

“You were amazing today,” she says. He doesn’t look up at her, but he can feel her smile regardless. “You’ve been getting better every time.”

“I thought you guys couldn’t watch all of us.”

“Well sure. I was watching  _ you _ .”

He looks up at her with a start then, and she’s still smiling. But there’s something different behind it. Or maybe it’s that her cheeks are redder than normal.

“You-you were watching me?”

She laughs, a sound like no other. “I’m sorry, that sounds really creepy! I wasn’t like,  _ watching _ you, I promise, I just-”

He cuts her off. “I know. I was watching you too.”

She bites her lip, and the blush in her cheeks deepens. “Do you, uh, want to get dinner sometime?”

He nods, his eyes not leaving hers. “I’d like that.”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I taught my boyfriend some lindy hop earlier this term because the college's midwinter ball was yesterday. I really like lindy, and doing it with someone you love is really nice :)
> 
> I exist on tumblr, so if you ever want to talk to me about anything, TAZ related or not, feel free to contact me [here](https://rosesandspades713.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> Have a good one, friends!


End file.
